15

I sat on my bed and picked through the feathers of my new wings. It was several hours after my frightening encounter in the woods, and night was beginning to set in. I could see the shadows outside of my window getting longer as the sun went down.

A lot had happened since I'd gotten home. Gabrielle had left after cleaning up my back and checking my wings. She'd told me that I was very lucky too. My wings bursting out in that dirty wilderness had been a big risk for infection. But the wounds they caused were clean, so I was going to be okay.

She'd also let me know that Raphael had made sure that Sean got home okay, and Sara had been able to take care of him. Raphael had stayed and helped her too, and he'd said that Sean would be alright after getting some time to heal.

Hearing that made me feel a little bit better, although I still felt extremely guilty over everything. I knew that I shouldn't have gone there, but I'd been so damn curious. I wanted to know why everyone kept saying that an abandoned place like that was so dangerous. Guess I got what I wished for. I'd just stared almost certain death in the face.

I didn't bother away from what I was doing as I heard my door open. I had the distinct feeling that it was Michael. It was odd, but ever since I'd gotten my wings, I could tell who in my family was around, and I was proven right as he sat down near me and he spoke.

"Don't pick at your wings Mia. There's no need."

I let my wing go and faced him, "Is Gabrielle still here?" I asked.

"No. I told her that she could go home. I think that I can take care of you from here." Michael answered.

I'll bet, I thought.

"So, you're going to wring me out now?" I guessed.

"I could, but I really don't see what good that would do. I think you already understand your mistake." Michael responded.

Yep, that was my dad. He was very reasonable about things, and he didn't believe in wasting words. In that way, he and Raphael were exactly alike.

I looked down, the guilt coming back full force.

"I'm sorry. I really wasn't looking for that place Dad. I just stumbled into it and I was so curious about it." I apologized.

"I know, and I believe you." Michael responded, "I think I know you very well Mia. You're not the type to really take such reckless chances, and, like me, you're a bit too curious for your own good at times. That's part of the reason I really can't say that much about all of this, although I do wish that you had thought twice. The truth is, Raphael and I were a bit too curious at one time too. That's how we ended up knowing about it a long time ago."

"What was that thing? I heard Sean and Raphael call it a Mantis." I inquired.

"That's basically what it was. It's one of the nastier things that can slip over to this side of the Veil from time to time." Michael answered.

I sat back on my bed. No time like the present to ask whatever I wanted to. It seemed like Michael was willing to talk more about this stuff now.

"Hey Dad, you and Raphael talk about those things sometimes. What kind of place do they come from? Why do they keep coming here?" I asked.

Michael thought about how to answer me, "Well, it's not easy to explain these things. To be honest with you, we didn't know that much about it either until after your uncle sprouted his wings, and in gaining our own, all of us wanted to know more about the other side of the world we'd come from. That's how we began to learn a little bit about what we are, and what existed out there besides ourselves."

"You said that my great grandfather is an angel. How'd you find out? Did he tell you? Or was it my grandfather?" I probed.

I was feeling extremely curious about all of this now that I had also changed. Though Michael had spoken of our heritage before, he really hadn't told me that much. My mind was also wandering to Noel Renaldi's grave. Maybe this would be the right time to ask him about her too.

"All of what we know came from what your grandfather told us before he passed away. He didn't know that much either, but he did tell us what he'd been told for most of his life, and that was that we were one of three Nephilim families. Our family was created with the same purpose as the other two; to protect between the mortal world and the Veil." Michael explained.

"Really? There are two other families like us?"

Now that was interesting. We weren't the only Nephilim in this world.

"There are, but we haven't been able to locate them. That's something we've been attempting to do for years, and just haven't had any luck with yet." Michael admitted.

"I get that. It is a big world. I guess even bigger when you think about the Veil and all. Do you and Raphael and Gabrielle know a lot about that world?" I asked.

"I can't say we haven't been interested in learning everything we can about it, but we've had a hard time with some of it too. Like you've seen twice now, there are a lot of things on that side of the Veil that aren't friendly at all. Unfortunately, for some of them, it just tends to be in their nature. What you saw this afternoon was what is called a Mantis. They're all female, and they are what our insects called the Praying Mantis were originally named after. They're basically the same equivalent." Michael explained.

I stared at him, "Wait a minute. Are you telling me that that thing was a giant bug?"

"Not exactly, but close enough." Michael confirmed, "As I said, all of the Mantis are female, and are a type of creature that typically lives in the darkness of the Veil's worlds. You can think of those places as mirrors to our mortal one. Most of what you'd hear about that are considered myths actually do exist there, though most don't cross over anymore, and the ones that do are so incognito that normal humans can't tell the difference. Only those like ourselves, with what was once told to us was a veil over our eyes being lifted, can tell what they really are, even when disguised."

That made me wonder how many of these things I'd really seen in my lifetime before I'd gotten my wings. Obviously, some must have been very good at disguising themselves.

"I guess you and Uncle Raphael knew about that Mantis being there. You wouldn't have kept warning me about that place if you didn't." I surmised.

"It was actually a chance thing that we learned about her." Michael confessed, "We realized that she was stalking that area shortly after we returned to Madison from DC. If you look into past news articles in the older papers, you'll find that there were many unexplained killings and disappearances in that area over the years. That was all her; and since we had come here to settle down again, we decided to be rid of her. But Raphael was worried about one of us being hurt in the process of actually killing her, so we opted instead to just lock her away in the ruins of St. Andrews, which was her original home and hunting ground. She still had some hapless victims there, but not half as many. It was a fair trade in the end, as morbid as that sounds."

When it came down to it, this seemed to be a sentiment that the Renaldi family had come to adapt long ago. Protect the family first. You couldn't save everyone, even if you wished you could.

I knew that I probably should come clean too, especially when I thought of what Raziel had said to Sean when they came to get us.

"Hey Dad, did you know that Sean told me a little bit about that place before?"

Michael shook his head, "Not really. It was more of a guess on Raziel's part, although it doesn't surprise me that Sean would go there and take his chances. Foxes are known for doing dangerous things simply because they're bored. I suppose that one aspect of his personality will never change. But I'm not blaming him either. After all, he did go after you to make sure that you'd be protected, and a Fox against a Mantis is outmatched a majority of the time. He must be serious about all of this to risk his life like he did."

"Serious about what?" I couldn't help but ask.

As usual, Michael avoided the question, "Never mind. All that matters now is that you're safe. But you should get some rest. You've had a very long day, and you need to allow yourself time to heal." he insisted. He stood up and gave me a quick kiss on my forehead.

I made a face at him, but I didn't bother arguing. It wouldn't have done me any good.

Another hour passed and I ended up falling asleep. But unfortunately, I had a nightmare about my encounter with that Mantis. That made me wake up with a gasp, my heart racing. It took me a few seconds to register that I was safe in my room now, and remember that Sean had killed it.

I felt my wings shift slightly as I laid there on my right side. That was right. My wings had also erupted very suddenly out there.

I slowly got up and walked over to the full length mirror on my closet door. Clicking on the small lamp on my desk beside it, I studied my reflection. This felt really strange now that I was letting it all sink in.

The feathers of my wings had the same blue tint that the rest of my family's did. Michael had told me that my grandfather once said it was connected to the angel who created our family. Of course, a lot of what Michael and my aunt and uncle knew about this had been from my grandfather. That angel had gone back into the Heavens right after they'd been born from what they knew, so none of them had ever gotten the chance to meet him.

I wondered why that was. If that angel had been told to create this family, then why had he been forced to leave us like that?

My attention was distracted as another thing dawned on me while I looked at my reflection. I wasn't wearing my glasses, yet I was seeing perfectly. That shocked me. I was basically blind without them before, yet I could see beyond perfect now. I turned off the light to test my vision, and it remained just as clear.

I leaned a bit closer to the mirror, inspecting my face. It looked the same, yet prettier somehow. Was this some sort of byproduct of this change too?

The sound of tapping at the window on the right side of my bed brought me back to reality. I knew who almost immediately. Raziel was out there.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I pushed the curtain aside. As I expected, he was crouched out there on the sill. His large wings were silhouetted behind him in the moonlight.

"You could've just used the front door." I teased as I let him in.

"I know, but they kept telling me to let you rest and wouldn't let me see you until tomorrow. So I took matters into my own hands." Raziel responded.

"You mean you snuck out."

"How'd you know?"

Raziel flashed me the same smile that he always did when he knew he was probably going to get in trouble later for his actions.

"It's okay. I'm glad you came. I was lonely." I admitted as I hugged him.

He hugged me back just as tightly, "You scared the hell out of me too. I really thought that thing might kill you before we got there." he whispered.

"I'm okay now, but why didn't you tell me about that thing when I asked you about St. Andrews before?" I asked, pulling back to look at him.

"It's not like it's something you'd talk about." Raziel answered, "Besides, I didn't think that you'd actually find that place. Hell, I've never been able to find it, and I looked around those trails a lot in the last couple years. Guess Dad was counting his blessings with that one."

I giggled. Raziel certainly did love seeing how far he could push his father at times, and he'd always been a natural born risk taker.

"You know, Sean did manage to find me first. That means that you might owe him for saving me." I teased as I sat on the side of the bed.

Raziel bowed his head as he sat beside me, "Yeah, maybe. But I'm not that surprised. Guess he was telling the truth how he feels. I can't keep arguing now."

This would be the second time that I was that someone in my family was alluding to something more with Sean. But where Michael avoided telling me about it, I knew that Raziel wouldn't.

"Raziel, why is Sean always so nice to me? Is it because of what I did to him?" I asked.

Raziel gave me a funny look, "You seriously don't get it?"

"Get what?"

"And here I didn't think you were this dense." Raziel scoffed.

"Just shut up and tell me." I ordered.

"Okay, okay." Raziel relented, "But I would've thought that you'd get it by now. It's really got nothing with you breaking that nasty side of his fox nature, or whatever it was. Sean wouldn't have even spoken to you that first day if he didn't have some kind of interest in knowing you. Trust me, I know all about that one. I've had to listen to the stories since the day he came here."

"Anna?" I guessed.

"Who else?" Raziel scoffed, "Anyway, when I'd heard that he talked to Michael about taking you to the Prom, I decided to confront him about it. I admit that I wasn't comfortable at all over any of it. He'd attacked you, and now he was acting like he actually liked you. It just didn't sit right with me. So I caught up with him after school a couple days later to ask him about what was really going on."

This was news to me. Sean had never mentioned that Raziel had talked to him one on one like that.

"You did huh? What did he say?" I inquired.

Raziel sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair, "He came clean, but it wasn't what I was expecting. He admitted that he'd actually liked you from the moment he saw you. What happened at the school before was partly because of that. He couldn't control that other side of his nature. But after you erased it, he was sure of how he felt. Guess that's just grown for him since then. He sure as hell wouldn't have done what he did today if he didn't feel something really strongly towards you."

I felt the blush burning my cheeks. So it was true. Sean really did feel like he was in love with me. I knew that Raziel would never lie about such a thing. Not with his distrust of Sean and knowing that this might make me closer to him.

But I felt conflicted too. Why would someone like Sean like someone like me? It made as much sense to me as to how in the world I'd ended up with someone like Michael as my father.

"You know Sis, you do have some major complexes at times, don't you?" Raziel suddenly commented.

He'd called me Sis here and there since we were little kids because we were so close. There had even been a couple of times at school where it had been pretty confusing for those around us. It didn't help that we could have passed for being twins too. Our looks were a lot alike.

"Did you read my mind?" I asked.

"No, but I could sense what you were feeling. There was a lot of confusion and doubt there. Seriously, I don't know why you worry so much about things. It's not like you've ever been ugly. Trust me, I'd tell you the truth if you were." Raziel answered, grinning at me.

I huffed, looking away, "Wow. Thanks a lot." I pouted.

Raziel laughed, "Come on. I'm kidding. But seriously, you really aren't ugly, and you've never been, no matter what you keep thinking; and I'm telling you, getting your wings is definitely gonna turn heads when you go back to school."

"What do you mean?"

"Guess you really haven't taken a good look in the mirror, huh? Well, I guess it's kind of a subtle thing too. At least, that's how Gabrielle likes to put it. But I noticed it too. When we get these wings, things about us change a little too. We look a little better than normal people, and we don't have any handicaps anymore. I bet you've already noticed that you don't need your glasses anymore. You'll never need them again." Raziel explained.

"That's going to feel weird." I admitted. But at the mention of Gabrielle's name, something else suddenly popped into my mind, "Hey Raziel, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?" Raziel asked, suddenly curious. Guess I'd caught him off guard.

"Have you ever heard of someone named Noel Renaldi?"

He was quiet for a bit, but I had the distinct feeling that he was very surprised. After a few long moments of silence, he finally spoke.

"Where did you hear that name?"

"I didn't. I saw her grave. When I went to the cemetery a couple months ago and was looking at our grandparents' graves, I saw this grave near them that looked like it was covered up by leaves and grass, and it said Noel Renaldi. I thought she might be related to us, but I can't remember ever hearing about her before." I explained.

"So she really is buried there?" Raziel muttered, though it was more to himself.

Now I was certain that he knew something about this. He wouldn't have acted this way if he didn't.

"Who is she Raziel? I've never heard anything about her before, and she was born on the same day as Gabrielle. She even died when she was our age." I continued.

Raziel hesitated before finally answering me.

"I don't.... know that much about her. She was part of our family, but I only heard her name a couple of years ago, and that was from Gabrielle. The only reason that she mentioned it at all was because we'd been watching a movie together and she decided that she wanted to talk a little bit about it. But Dad and Michael don't talk about her at all. Actually, they won't from what I know."

"Something bad must have happened to her." I surmised.

"Yeah." Raziel agreed, "I didn't know she was buried near our grandparents though. I've been there plenty of times, and I've never seen that grave. Guess I wasn't looking in the right place. Anyway, Gabrielle did talk to me a little bit about her, and she is related to us. She was her twin sister."

"Twin sister?" I repeated.

"Yep. They were twins, and the youngest of the four of them. But according to Gabrielle, Noel was kidnapped when they were eight years old. They found her a week later, and she was alive, but she was never the same. Gabrielle said that she caused a lot of trouble after she came home. She tried to turn our grandparents against each other, and my dad against them, so Gramps eventually ended up sending her to live with our great aunt in Tennessee. But right after Grandma died, she apparently committed suicide." Raziel explained.

A shiver went through me as he said that. Another suicide. That was creepy. But at the same time, I now understood why Michael and Raphael wouldn't want to talk about her. Maybe they felt guilty for not being able to help Noel or their mother.

"Do you think that's why they won't talk about her? Because they regret what happened to her?" I asked him.

"I don't know. I've never really pushed the whole thing. It kinda creeps me out to think that two people in our family killed themselves so close together." Raziel admitted. But just as quick, he had an add in, "But not as much as thinking about that fox maybe becoming part of the family."

I laughed. Of course Raziel would never like the idea of Sean becoming part of our family one day. But far be it for me to disappoint him.

"You know, Sean did score brownie points in saving me back there. Even you have to admit that." I reminded him.

"I know, and I'll admit it. But really Mia, think about what you might be doing if you go for the fox. He's not exactly like us." Raziel responded.

"I know." I agreed, "but seriously Raziel, I want to be around Sean, and I want to give him a chance. I like him, and I think you actually could be friends with him if you let yourself."

"I could, but it's gonna take a while. Just give me some time on that."

Looking over at the nightstand by my bed, I suddenly realized just how late it was getting. It was nearly one in the morning.

"Are you going to stay here tonight?" I asked him.

"Nah. I guess I'll head back now that I know for sure that you're okay, and I'll be here tomorrow." Raziel promised as he stood up.

I won't say that I was completely sure of anything as he hugged me one more time before flying back out of that window. The only thing I knew at that point was that my life had changed forever. I was a full Nephilim now, and nothing would ever be the same.